Swipe-away rate

Percent of viewers who swipe past a Short or TikTok in the first few seconds.

Swipe-away rate is the inverse of hook rate, specifically on swipeable feeds: TikTok For You Page, Shorts feed, Instagram Reels. It measures how aggressively viewers reject your video in the opening beat.

Below 30 percent swipe-away is a strong opener. Above 50 percent is a structural problem with the hook, not a tweak.

TikTok exposes this directly. Shorts requires inferring it from retention at 1 to 3 seconds.

Why it matters

Swipe-away rate is the gating function for everything downstream on swipeable feeds. A video that loses 60 percent in the first 2 seconds will never reach a meaningful audience, regardless of how good the back half is.

How to improve it

01First frame matters more than first sentence. The thumbnail of a Short is the first frame.
02Audio hooks (a strong sound or beat) reduce swipe-away independent of visual hook.
03Avoid intros, logos, or 'hey guys' openers. Both cost 10 to 20 points of swipe-away.

Apply it

See your own swipe-away rate in seconds.

Paste any YouTube, Shorts or TikTok link and our analyzer will surface the metric, the curve, and the move that lifts it next.

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Related terms

Hook rate

Percent of impressions that keep watching past the first 3 seconds.

Loop rate

Average number of times a Short or TikTok is replayed by the same viewer.

Completion rate

Percent of viewers who watch the entire video to the end.